EXCEPTS:
"The Bush administration has not been held accountable for any of its crimes. By failing to hold government accountable to law, the Constitution, and the American people. the opposition party and the corporate media have abandoned their responsibility to protect freedom and democracy in the United States."
"The Bush administration has violated constitutional principles, US law, and the Geneva Conventions as no previous administration has done. Here is a short list of the Bush administration's crimes."
October 25, 2007
Bush Preaches Democracy, Proposes Tyranny
The Fraudulent War on Terror
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Americans had best rethink the "war on terror" while they still have the
liberty to do so. For all of President Bush's blah-blah talk about bringing
democracy to the world, the Bush administration has proved that it is no friend
of liberty at home.
The Bush administration has violated constitutional principles, US law, and the
Geneva Conventions as no previous administration has done. Here is a short list
of the Bush administration's crimes:
The Bush administration has even
conducted Stalinist show trials against innocent Muslim charities as part of its
propaganda to make the American people fearful that they are surrounded by
hostile terrorists. In December 2001 President Bush declared the Holy Land
Foundation for Relief and Development to be a "terrorist organization" and
seized the charity's assets. Bush put the charities' officials on trial as
terrorists. Six years later on October 22, 2007, after years of investigations
and two months of testimony by who but "Israeli intelligence agents"
(according to the New York Times), the US government's case fell apart in the
courtroom.
One of the jurors said that the case "was strung together with macaroni
noodles. There was so little evidence."
Georgetown University professor of constitutional law David D. Cole said the
case "suggests the government is really pushing beyond where the law
justifies them going."
While committing these unprecedented crimes, President Bush has claimed the
moral high ground despite having lied to the American people and despite
devastating two countries in the name of "making the world safe from
terrorists." When people in Iraq and Afghanistan are asked who are the
terrorists, they answer that it is the Americans.
The Bush administration has not been held accountable for any of its crimes. By
failing to hold government accountable to law, the Constitution, and the
American people. the opposition party and the corporate media have abandoned
their responsibility to protect freedom and democracy in the United States.
There can be no democracy where there is no government accountability, and there
is no government accountability in the United States - except, of course, to the
Israel Lobby.
Now the Bush administration wants to take away the American people's freedom to
travel within their own country by airplane. Not content with an 80,000 "no fly"
list, a subset of a 500,000-750,000 "watch list," the Bush administration's
Transport Security Administration has proposed new rules that will require
Americans to get government permission 72 hours in advance prior to being
allowed to board a domestic flight.
The TSA justifies this extraordinary violation of our constitutional rights on
the grounds that 90 to 93 percent of all travel reservations are final by then.
So what?!
And what of the 7 to 10 percent of flights that the TSA estimates are not on the
books 72 hours in advance? These are family emergencies and critical business
deals. What does the TSA care if a member of your family dies while you await
the government's permission to fly?
Any agency of the government that can propose such a tyrannical regulation
should be abolished. The TSA's mentality shows it to be a far greater threat to
Americans than are terrorists.
Even without the "permission to fly" rule, the TSA's practices are
ridiculous and unjustified. The confiscation of tooth paste and unopened bottles
of perfume, the harassment of US military officers in uniform, the harassment of
old people struggling with their walkers, of mothers struggling with small
children--none of this makes any sense except in terms of getting Americans
accustomed to harassment as a citizen's duty to government and to train a cadre
to conduct warrantless searches of fellow citizens.
The no-fly list itself is absurd. If a known terrorist were to show up at an
airport, he would be arrested, not refused permission to fly. Anyone else who
can clear security like other passengers has every right to fly.
Set aside the violation of the Constitution and the Soviet-style tyranny of the
loss of the freedom to travel and consider merely the practical aspect of the
proposal. What American wants his travel plans dependent on a government
bureaucracy capable of putting US Senator Ted Kennedy on the "no fly" list and
capable of issuing US visas to two of the alleged 9/11 hijackers six months
after they allegedly died in the 9/11 events?
If we believe the official story, 9/11 itself reveals a government totally
devoid of any competence whatsoever.
The "war on terror" is fraudulent. The cruel war and the deceptive vocabulary
that protects it are a cover for expanding US and Israeli hegemony in the MIddle
East and for constructing a functioning police state at home.
A country in which people cannot
make airline reservations without the government's permission is not a free
country.
###
Related articles at
www.heartcom.org/BUSHwhacked.htm